Loyalty Among Mercenaries
by EricHunt
Summary: the year is 2015. Fighting for your country is a thing of the past. PMCs are now the only armies in the world. In this mercenary-dominated world, three pilots stand out above the rest: Razor team. This is their story.
1. Introductions

**1: **just another day at the office...

The Red-hot bullets soar past my cockpit... My warning light has forgotten what it's like to be off... The bullets begin to find their target, hitting the tail of my fighter, and i begin cursing myself for going against lead's advice and keeping my Eagle, instead of upgrading to a Typhoon like her. Now i was stuck ducking-and-weaving between the mountains of B7R at Mach 2, instead of turning-and-burning with the Berkuts on my tail. I watch the three fighters in my mirror, all vying for the kill.  
Out of nowhere, a fifth fighter joins the fray. I look all around, but the only sign of this newcomer is the sound of its engines howling. Then, i focus once again in the trio of aces who're trying to flame my arse as they, too, begin to evade. Only this time, their pursuer scores a kill. The Typhoon, hidden behind the three Sukhoi fighters, lets loose a short burst of gunfire that peppers the trailing Berkut, and sends it spinning earthward. The other two Berkuts' pilots turn for home, not willing to join their brother-in-arms. The gunmetal Typhhon forms up ahead of me, two emblems clearly visible : one of a dog, that's the logo of Doberman PMC, our employers. The other: a razor-blade slicing through a fighter.  
"Dammit, Leto... I thought you were a goner!" Lead half-sighed, half-yelled at me.

"Chillax, cap'n... I'm an Ustian! We dont die!" I shot back, laughing.

"Let's just get gone before you get yourse-"

"Warning! Warning! Razor team, we've got two high-speed bogeys inbound on vector 329!" our AWACS cut in.

"Two-on-two... Diamond-eyes, give me an aircraft make!" Lead replied

"Two... hold on, im patching through the shape..." Diamond-eyes said, before my Tac Display showed the shape of every pilot's worst nightmare... or at least it would be if they knew what it was.

"Any idea on what they are?"Lead asked, her usually calm voice betraying a hint of worry.

"Negative. We've never seen this before!"

"I have." i cut in. "And the results weren't pretty."

"Leto, you've seen this?!" Lead turned her attention to me.

"Yeah. And not even your plane can take these..." I warned. "Run."

"They're faster than us!"

"Did i say anything about outrunning them? Just run!" I yelled, simultaneously turning my nose towards the two fighters.

"Leto, don't you **dare**!" She yelled at me.

"Just **run**. I promised i'd protect you, and i'm not going to go back on that promise now!" I shouted back, before i turned my radio off.  
The two fighters begin to weave one another's paths, in that defensive manoeuvre only the top Belkan aces use. I flipp my Master Arm switch, and waited for a shot. Soon, they stop weaving. I loose 2 XMAAs and bank hard to the left, not looking to see if my missiles hit, simply because of the terror the payload of those experimental fighters i had fired at caused...

Showers of molten metal thousands of feet wide... I didnt want to get hit by one of those missiles.

I light my afterburners and risk a look back. One of the fighters, miraculously, is actually going down in flames, but the other one is bearing down on me hard. Without any warning, i pop my airbrakes and stall the fighter, pointing my nose straight up. Soon, the gold-and white fighter that had been bearing down on me catches up, and starts to fire his guns at me. I slam the throttle into full-afterburner, and begin to climb, pefore i pop my afterburners again, putting me in the perfect position for a guns kill. I dont hesitate, and bullets pepper the enemy fighter, before it disappears in a fireball.

Finally i flip the radio back on, only to be greeted by my lead threatening to kill me.

"Easy, miss! im back now!"

"What the HELL do you think you're playing at, Leto?! You had me worried almost to death here!"

"Sorry Lindsey, but i couldnt concentrate with you screaming at me!"

"Let's just head home." she sighed.

"Lets." i replied, forming up on her right wing. "i'm sorry for that, Caz, I really am."

"Let's just get home and see what the Commander has for us to do tomorrow, David..." She sighed again, as we lit our afterburners and left the airspace to the south-east.


	2. Curious Sights

2 hours later, we're coming up to the approach for Valais airbase, Doberman PMC's Ustio HQ.

"Razor team, requesting landing clearance." Caz says mechanically.

Landing permission granted, Caroline... Welcome home." The base Tower Controller, Colonel Foulke replies.

We feather our throttles as we glide our fighters down towards the runway. In formation, of course. Landing always scares the crap outta me, especially in formation. Soon the gear hits the tarmac, and I breathe a sigh of relief. We then taxi our fighters to our hangar beside the Mess Hall, and I run through my engine shut-down procedure. "I'm gonna miss this old gal..." I think, as I unclip my harness. By the time my boots hit the ground, Caz is already beside me, ready to go to the Commander's office. The office itself is built onto the Mess Hall, and you have to go through the canteen and down a corridor with blinding-white paint on the ceiling and walls, and a royal-blue carpet on the floor. At the end of the corridor was a gunmetal-grey door, with two brass plaques on it. The first one reads: "CMDR. Alain 'Cipher' Escot", while the second bears the Commander's personal motto:

"The sky is your stage,

Your craft is your costume,

Your weapons are your words,

And the curtain's rising on your show."

I knock sharply on the door. A gruff yet pleasant voice orders us to enter. We sit down in the hard seats in front of the desk that dominates the space within the office. The wall to our right is plastered with newspaper cuttings dating from 2010, all about that "Razgriz" squadron that won the war. Two walls are taken up by a window, with the only interruption in the panes of glass being in the corner. The Commander sits in his comfy swivel-chair surveying the base like an emperor overlooking his kingdom. "Right," he begins, a trace of an Osean accent in his otherwise Ustian accent. "What happened, David? You split off to investigate something just before you got chased..."

"For starters, they were Berkuts that chased me, sir..." I began, "and what do you know about B7R's defences?"

"Defences? There aren't any!"

"Not even an airbase? Then how do you explain the runway jutting out of one of the mountains?"

"I have to speak with Intel. about this... Thank you for notifying me, David... did you get a photo, by any chance?"

"yeah, and better. I got the co-ords too... sent 'em to Diamond-eyes before I got intercepted. They should still have 'em..."

Just as I finish my sentence, one of the Radar Operators walks in, asking to speak with the Commander privately. Caroline and I stand up, salute the Commander, and hit the Mess for some chow. While I'm queued up, I spot that "Genette" guy, a world-famous war-reporter that came here looking for his last story before he retires. He's interviewing Doberman's top aces, and Valais is his last port-of-call for a story. Just as I begin to wonder which squadrons he'll be interviewing, two stick-worn hands cover my eyes, and a playful vice rings in my ear: "guess who!"

"I dunno... Kei Nagase?" I joke, before I turn around and kiss my lover. We make our way over to a free table, chatting all the way.

"So... how was patrol, babes?" he asks, taking a swig of his beer.

"I got chased!" I say, in mock-horror.

"Oh, golly... by what?" he says, acting like a reporter; taking out his imaginary notebook, licking his imaginary pen. Then he gets bored with pretending to be a reporter, and decides he wants to pretend he was an artist instead, using my face as a canvas. When he's was satisfied with the scribble he's drawn on my face, he starts tickling me. Once I'm out of breath from all his tickling, he kisses me deeply. Before we can even think of going any further, however, Caz sits down directly opposite us, and we snap straight in mock-obedience.

"At ease, boys..." she smiles. "Why weren't you up today, Adam? David could've used your help with those Berkuts!"

Adam turns on me: "you didn't tell me they were Berkuts! Oh my god! Are you okay?!"

"No, I'm dead..." I joke, poking him a little. "Of course I'm okay, babe... You'd kill me if I died!"

"True, that..." He smiles that angel's smile at me, the one I'm always dazzled by, no matter how many times I see him do it. "So, are you gonna upgrade from that bucket-'o'-bolts for a certain Russian fighter made by Sukhoi?"

"Adam!" Caroline shouts at him.

"What? Nobody can fend off Berkuts in something that outdated!"

"I took out two 'Morgans'." I quietly butt in.

"Two what?!?!" they both scream at me, causing everyone in the Mess to wheel around and stare at us.

"Yeah, 'Morgans'. What, you thought they were just a legend!? I saw the first one dogfight over Avalon while my dad lay dying, for god's sake!" I snap. "sorry."

"Don't be. Obviously that still hurts..." Caroline says, while Adam just wraps his arms around me, and I lie my head against his chest.

"E-excuse me?" A nervous voice pipes up, instantly recognizable as Genette's.

"Yes?" I reply, instantly regaining my composure and turning on my seat to face him.

"Umm... I was looking for 'Razor' team? Do... d'you know where I might find them?"

"Yeah... Right here! Razor-2, better known by my surname, Leto." I say, standing up and extending my hand. He shakes it, both nervously and submissively.

"Well... I was wondering if I could interview you? Nothing as epic as the Belkan war documentary, just a page-long article for the Oured Times... "he trails off.

"Sure!" we all say in unison.

* * *

**A/N: I don't own any of the countries or planes mentioned... But the OCs are mine. Also give me a break if it's not great, it's my first time writing something that's NOT for school.**


	3. The First Of Many

**The First of Many**

We Walk into the Barracks, and enter room 41, the room Adam and I share. Two of the three walls are plastered with posters of bands like "Paramore", "Slipknot", and "Nirvana", while the fourth is covered with a black, white, and red graffiti-style mural. We sit down on the two beds, and Genette unpacks his MP3 Dictaphone, before putting it on the bedside locker and starting the interview.

**Genette**: So, Razor Squadron…

**Caz**: _team._

**G**: Sorry, Razor _Team_… First of all, whose idea was the name?

**Adam**: David's. It's a long story…

**G**: We've got time…

**A**: When David and I came here, we were both… well… we were "Emo"s. Hell, we still like the music!

**David**: you could at least say that you turned me "Emo"! *laughs*

**G**: So, razors, "Emo"s… did either of you…?

**A**: _Hell no!_

**G**: Ok… So, did you three know each other before you came to Valais, or were you just randomly put together?

**D**: well, I met Adam during training, and we started going out while we were there… and it was just pure luck that we were both posted to the same base!

**C**: As for me, I was a year ahead of these two lovebirds… I got to know them pretty fast though, because they used to always free-run on the base, and I was always sent up to chase them off the women's barracks!

**G**: Where did you three grow up? 'cause you don't sound like the locals…

**D**: I grew up in Directus, but everyone says I have an Emmerian accent…

**A**: I'm an Emmerian by birth, but I grew up in Farbanti, Erusea… I was out of the country, visiting my cousins in Gracemaria, when the war started… I haven't been back since.

**C**: Ooh, look at you, Mr. International! *laughs*I grew up in North-Point city... I wish I got to travel around like Adam, but my life was far from ordinary...

**G**: Interesting... Wait, shouldn't you be fighting for Cogadh, since you're from its Centre of Operations?

**C**: **No way**. I've heard what they do to certain types of people, and I don't wanna be either a part or a victim of it!

**G**: What do they do?

**C**: I-... I don't want to say.

**G**: changing the subject.... what was your childhood like, Caroline?

**C**: It was-... well, it was tough. My parents were murdered by a gang because they were suspected free-runners, and I was chased by the gangs nearly every day for the same reason...the irony of it all was that I became a 'runner to get away from the gangs! *laughs* and, after five years of that, I had earned enough money to leave North Point, and get to Ustio, where I joined Doberman. The rest, as they say, is history!

**G**: That must've been tough on you...

**C**:It was okay... I'm not gonna say it wasn't hard, but you just got on with life, y'know?

**G**: I wish I could say I did... What drew you to Doberman, David?

**D**: *sigh* I was hoping you wouldn't ask me that... My dad was a member of "A World with No Boundaries", and he dragged me along to see their "Decisive Victory" at Avalon. He was an AA operator in a tower atop the facility itself, but he was killed by an allied Rafale M that he himself shot down... I hid in the trees after that, until the explosions stopped. I actually saw Cipher's last dogfight, you know... Against a white-and-red "Morgan", and all. I watched from beside a piece of wreckage... an F-16c tail, with a little bruise-blue crow insignia on it. By the time the Allied soldiers picked me up, I'd made up my mind as to what I was going to do for a living...

**A**: Wasn't that when you became a gymnast, babes? *laughs*

**D**: Yeah...*giggles* and fifteen years later, I joined Doberman, just before I was supposed to compete for Ustio at 'worlds! Every Gymnast and coach in Ustio still hates me for it! *laughs*

**G**: You? A Gymnast?!

**D**: Yeah! Do I have to prove it?

**G**: Go ahead then...

**D**: Alright.... *drops into full-splits, before climbing back up to sit on the bed again*

**G**: Whoah... okay, now I believe it!

**A**: why don't you do that for me, babe? *giggles*

**D**: 'cuz it hurts when I do it that suddenly! *laughs*

**G**: So... how about you, Adam? What happened to you before Doberman?

**A**: Nothing exciting like Caz and Dave... Summers in Gracemaria, schooling in Farbanti, became fascinated by Mobius One, and tried to follow in his footsteps... Typical childhood, really... I'm sorry Mr. Genette...

**G**: its fine... your time as a pilot more than makes up for anything else!

Sirens start wailing, and red lights start flashing.

**D**: **DAMMIT**! Can't a pilot ever get five minutes peace?!

The three pilots run out of the room and toward the hangars, leaving Genette to wonder at the mural on the back wall of the room.

* * *

**A/N: sorry about how long this took... school got in the way, i guess... anyway, R&R, and thanks to "locke 2564" and "Putu" for their feedback! **

**it's been taken on board for the future.**


End file.
